There are few moments when a horror film possesses the ability to completely and utterly shake me to the core. These films don't necessarily have to be of the caliber to win an Academy Award, they just need to deliver a message. Michael Goi's indie, found footage film
Megan Is Missing is one of the most unsettling films I've seen in years. Now, let me elaborate on this premise. When I say the film is "unsettling" I mean that in the sincerest sense of the word. Given my young age, I do have frequent interactions with early teenage girls through pageantry, baton twirling, and baby sitting. The fact of the matter is, today's teenage girls are trying to imitate the lives of college girls and early twenty year olds. Girls as young as twelve are losing their virginity at birthday parties and drinking with high school students. They're wearing makeup earlier and experimenting with drugs and alcohol barely after their first period. The teenage girl of today...is a complete and total idiot with complete disregard for common sense based on the principle that "everyone else is doing it". Talking to strangers on the internet is no exception. It is for that reason alone that
Megan is Missing completely took me aback.
I'm not going to analyze this film on a technical level, because it would be a waste of my time. The acting isn't great, it's "found footage", and yes, there is a ten minute scene of a man digging a hole. There you go, there's your "technical" review. What needs to be dissected is the horrifying truth the film holds. The parents of generation dotcom have lost their ability to parent. Children have far too much freedom and aren't monitored to the extent that they need to be. I've seen ten year old girls SEXTING boys in their classes. I didn't get a cell phone until the summer before high school and the only calls I was able to make were to my parents and the police. Hell, I couldn't text until my junior year of high school. Parents today don't know how to tell their children "no" and this is why so many of our kids are at risk. Children are sexualized at a very young age and when you combine that with social networking and smart phones, they're destined for destruction. This is the unfortunate truth of the way the world works and
Megan is Missing helps to showcase that with the epitome of a worst case scenario.
The film follows the story of fourteen year old Megan Stewart and thirteen year old Amy Herman. The two girls live the typical life of fourteen year olds in new millennium America. The girls go out to parties they shouldn't be attending, they're popular with the boys at school, and they spend their nights getting their kicks by flirting with strangers from the Internet. I'll be honest, at that age, I did the exact same thing. Amy was abused as a child and it definitely set her on the path for self destruction. While many criticize the acting of this film. These girls did a pretty decent job showcasing the false sense of immortality that the modern teenager believes they have. A little campy at times, but not to the point where it broke me out of the film. Regardless, Megan and Amy soon meet a boy who calls himself "Josh" on the Internet and Megan makes plans to meet with him.
While anyone with any common sense would be screaming "you idiot, you never meet people you've met in online chatrooms" you need to remember something...TEENAGERS ARE MORONS. Megan seems to fulfill her plans to meet "Josh" and as the title says, she goes missing. Amy becomes ridiculously upset and sets out on a campaign to find her. Unfortunately for Amy, she finds "Josh" or rather, "Josh" finds her. The aftermath of this discovery is incredibly gruesome and grievously triggering.
Michael Goi clearly did his homework on this one. Although there are moments when it becomes a little obvious that the girls aren't actually fourteen, but if you can show me a set of parents who would sign off on their children to participate in this film (without being total stage parents), they'd probably lose their paternal rights. There were moments in this film that honestly made me turn my head and close my eyes. This film didn't scare me so much as completely break my heart. It sickens me to know that the unfortunate truth of this film, is that this actually happens. Michael Goi isn't some sadistic freak who fantasized this all up, he based his film off of seven different cases involving internet related kidnappings. The script may not be the strongest ox on the cart, but it doesn't have to be. The message of this film could be understood if the entire film was on mute.
Now, this film isn't without its problems. It's in no way a perfect film, but the last 22 minutes were so earth shattering, it completely overshadowed any of the film's pitfalls. The film manages to creep under your skin and shows us the events the news never talks about. It may seem a bit exploitative at times, but I honestly think that we've gotten to the point where we as a society NEED it to be. Teenagers think they're invincible and are often times never held accountable for their actions. They don't understand the risk they are putting themselves in. The film does such a good job at making me never want to talk to anyone from the internet ever again that it was even endorsed by Marc Klass, founder of the KlaasKids Foundation to prevent crimes on children, and the father of Polly Hannah Klaas who was kidnapped and murdered. This film isn't meant for everyone, and it's not a film that anyone should "enjoy". I do, however, fully stand behind the filmmaker and his message for this film.
14 comment(s):
wow, those screenshots and that review; makes me feel stupid that I over looked this film. Nice one, mate!
This is, with out a shadow of a doubt, one of your best reviews ever. And it's not just because the film is amazing, but because you stand behind it. I'm a 38 year old man. I have a 23 year old sister and a 21 year old female cousin. My best friend has a seven year old daughter. The world that I inhabit in now is way more dangerous than it was when I was younger. It truly is a horrifying world but makes so bad is that parents are not discipline their children. when I stayed out late without calling, I was grounded. When I talked back, I lost my phone privileges. I was watched and I was punished. Do parents watch and punish their kids when their being bad? Do parents even watch their kids at all? No they don't and this film proves that case and I stand behind you and your statements. Excellent review my friend!
As Phil said this is quite good, a review in which you show a lot of insight. I don't know what the negative comments were about as you mentioned in your video post but I don't see any indication where anything you said was wrong or how it pertains towards your gender? I'm a year younger than you in age and you're unbelievably dead on with teenagers and the internet. And in truth not just teenagers but I've seen full grown thirty some year old adults make the stupidest mistakes.
Also I loved how you mentioned that a film doesn't have to be Academy Award worthy to make its point. I'll definitely be watching this. Thanks.
Amazing review of a film that no doubt will cause people to stop and think. I'm 25 (soon to be 26) and the world has changed so much from when I was younger. I didn't have a phone until I was 16 and I had a curfew that if I broke it, I would lose my phone and internet privilages.
Children today seem to be running the show and their parents are along for the ride.
What's sad is that it takes a film like this to make people wake up and smell the coffee and go and check on their children. What's even sadder is, once this film has left their minds, they revert back to their old ways.
I normally don't watch this kind of horror. Found footage is mostly the reason, but also the films that are just too close to home really give me a mixed feeling after I see them. Like I've helped violate someone. But, I'm going to watch this one. Mainly because I have a 14 yr old, and I'm an online kinda parent, so are my kids, but I try not to be stupid about it. Thanks for the heads up!
I beg to differ. As much as I respect BJ and usually agree with her POV, I'm old enough to know better. I mean, I'm 45 reaching 46. I've seen this happen before. Grown up people saying "oh kids today are just out of control". Even people just a little older than said kids (just like you, BJ) saying "oh, when I was that age it used to be different..." People in the 19th century used to say the same things of their youngsters. It's not the Internet. It's not parents not controlling their children. Kids have always ended up on the missing person list and always will be, for different reasons. I'm sad to see generation after generation making the same mistakes. I haven't seen the film so I won't judge it, but it stinks of exploitation to me. I don't believe it's more real than, let's say, "The exorcist". It's just capitalizing on people inner fears, beliefs or misunderstandings. I apologize for my bad English but I'm from Italy. Take care, BJ. You're my revenge for all those teenage nights I spent staying up to see obscure horror flicks on TV, feeling like a freak because I was the only female I knew so much into movies and gore :)
Oh honey, I'm old enough to be your mother and believe me, when I was this age we were quite brain dead too. A friend and I would go hitchhiking or go off with boys we barely knew who had cars. I stopped doing it when we had a very scary experience with a couple of guys who laced the pot we smoked with something much stronger. She still did it. I'm amazed that she made it to her twenties!
If my (now late) father had ever seen this film, he would not have let me leave the house until I was 40!
Fantastic review. I just finished watching it and I am completely unnerved.
What made this also interesting was the media parts where they are painting a picture of Megan as an all-American girl: beautiful, straight A student and popular at school. It's a picture painted a 1,000 times over when a young adult goes missing. But is everything as it seems? Megan had a dark side to her and it made you wonder how many other kids gone missing stories lacked the whole truth.
Man, those last 22 minutes. Truly disturbing. And I KNEW what was in that barrel but it still freaked me out. Fantastic film. Can't believe I hadn't heard of it before.
I saw this film about 2 months ago and was affected as you were by the content. I am 37 and have 2 young daughters(8 & 4)and this honestly added another level of terror to the fears I have for my girls. I understand where you are coming from with you comments about children having to much freedom and parents not being parents. I know that my style of parenting is not as acceptable to other parents (I am very strict) but the only thing I care about is that my children are safe and happy.
This film just reinforced my personal belief that while my kids may not like some of my choices for them, like only going to sites that I choose, I know that I am making the right descisions to keep them safe.
There's an episode of the TV series "Wire in the Blood" that takes a similar real life Internet meet up followed by torture and murder case and uses it as the basis of the episode.
Of course, in that case it was adult women who were the victims.
I've also heard a story of an adult man in Germany who was ... gulp ... cannibalized by another man he met on the Internet. There was also a recent story of fake job postings on the Internet, Craigslist specifically, luring job seeking men to an early grave. (Made me wary of helping an elderly woman I know sell her old timey record player on Craigslist....)
Soon after my first comment I watched the film. I regret posting the comment because I should really have watched the film first. Did I change my mind? God, no! I think the film is VERY VERY bad. The "found footage" is obviously fake. A great director would have done a great job with real phone cameras, real web cameras and so on, taking the creative opportunities to give the film an artful, almost experimental look, but this is clearly not the case. During the burial scene I was laughing my head off for the pitiful dialogue, and I was glad he finally buried her, so I couldn't hear her ridiculous lines (and acting) anymore. There wasn't a single moment I felt scared. The rape scene was totally out of synch, as neither the director nor the actress had an idea of what the rape of a virgin would be like (I won't be as graphic as Megan in the blow job re-telling scene and explain you why, but believe me I'm talking from experience here). On the whole, everything was so unbelievable I found it impossible to take it seriously or considering the message. If the film sucks but the message is good does it make it a good film? No, I don't think so. And the message sucks too. It's the more misogynist, more retrograde and demeaning depiction of teenage girls I've seen so far. I wouldn't let a 14year old watch the film because it's telling her "You're a stupid helpless slut" instead of "Be strong, be smarter than the guys who might want to harm you". I'm appalled that BJ is campioning this stuff on the Day Of The Woman. It's like 'Hard candy' never existed. And that's a GOOD film. I apologise for my poor English but I'm from Argento (not that he has done anything I like, lately) and Bava land. Ciao.
Thank you for your review of my movie. While I've certainly heard comments that are negative about the film, I think your review captures the intent of what I was putting across. As an industry professional with 30 years of experience (I currently shoot the shows "Glee" and "American Horror Story"), it was difficult making this film feel like no one professional made it. That was an important part of the aesthetic. The important thing is that I wanted the audience to not forget the movie's message the next time they saw a missing person's report on TV. And I wanted them to look at their own Internet habits with a different view.
Best,
Michael Goi
I read up on this and what I read said the director based this on four cases (still pretty gruesome), and Megan is the sexually abused child. I am sixteen and this movie deeply messed with me. The two girls (who were played by teen actors, the parents also had to completely agree and be on set the WHOLE time.) were very close to my age. I never really used chat rooms though, this movie just scared the want out of me even more. It's truly scary because it's so realistic. At some points I thought I heard classmates talking...
I just recently watched this film on netflix. Thinking it would good, something new. But it made me sick, I definatly was impacted by it. I dont have ne children, but i have cuzins around that age. And i use to use the internet like that ll the time, chat with people i dont know, i did have enouph sense to not meet up with someone. But, i dont even enjoy the internet like i have. As soon as i watched this film i went onto my facebook account and deleted all the people i never actually met. I know, silly. But these kind of people are out there. They just dont give us the details to what happens to them. I couldnt even finish the film, i shut it off 20 min. before it ended. I know whats gonna happen, im already traumatized from the photos of magen. It does get the message across though.
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